Paranoia

LET US put an end to the teaching and preaching of hate and evil and violence," said the president after the killing."Let us turn away from the fanatics of the far left and the far right, from the apostles of bitterness and bigotry, from those defiant of law and those who pour venom into the nation's bloodstream."

MOSCOW -- In the latest sign of Russia's backslide on democracy, its lower house of parliament gave preliminary approval yesterday to severe restrictions that critics say could force nongovernmental organizations to scale back or even abandon their work here. If the bill becomes law, foreign NGOs would be prohibited from operating branch offices in Russia and forced to re-register as local organizations, subjecting them to drastically increased government oversight. The legislation would also bar anyone who is not a permanent resident of Russia from working at an NGO here, activists say. "In any form, it's an odious law that imposes restrictions on the nonprofit sector that are intrusive and restrictive and largely unnecessary for what the government claims it wants to do," said Steven Solnick, Moscow representative for the Ford Foundation, which has its headquarters in New York.

WAR MAY BE hell, but peace is proving to be no picnic for some injudicious people. The end of the Cold War is rich in acute embarrassments for those who, while living on what proved to be the winning side, were on the wrong side of significant arguments.One argument concerned the guilt of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the spies executed in 1953. Nikita Khrushchev, in taped reminiscences now published as memoirs, extols ''some good people'' who served a ''great cause of the Soviet state'':''I was part of Stalin's circle when he mentioned the Rosenbergs with warmth.

Paris. -- Revolutions are hard on moderates. They usually turn into a struggle between the most intransigent reactionaries and the most radical of the revolutionaries. That seems to be happening in Algeria, and the result could feed the paranoia about Islamic fundamentalism already apparent in the United States and Western Europe.The French are bracing themselves right now for possible terrorist retaliation for the round-up of Algerian fundamentalist activists that has been going on since the weekend.

Don't go to "The Game" alone.The presence of a friend during this endlessly imaginative suspense thriller might be a comfort. It'll be an oxygen-like necessity when "The Game" ends and lends itself to the most enjoyable of movie pleasures, which is picking it apart. "How did they do that?" "How did they know he'd do that?" "Why did he do that?"Rich in paranoia intrigue, a lot of "The Game" won't stand up to such post-Game scrutiny. So what? "The Game" is riveting from its opening credits (a neat effect, with a background that resolves itself into puzzle pieces breaking apart)

No one would ever confuse "The Arrival" with Domino's, and it's not strictly an issue of pizza. It's simply that Domino's delivers and "The Arrival" doesn't.An expensive, effects-laden sci-fi thriller, the movie begins promisingly but at the halfway mark goes completely silly. Then it manages to wrap up in one of the least dynamic endings inrecent pop history.Charlie Sheen, with a goatee and space-buff's geeky glasses, stars as Zane Ziminski, a radio astronomer for NASA on an extraterrestrial search project.

ONE THING I pride myself on, as I navigate the rocky shoals of midlife, is that so far I have avoided the many anxiety disorders that pop up in the news every day. Sometimes I wish I could pin my failings on an anxiety disorder, but in all honesty, I know my bad traits are just that - I can't blame them on anything chemical, genetic or hormonal. Finally, though, I may be able to claim an anxiety that is truly caused by an outside force beyond my control. I'll call it Voter Anxiety Disorder, or VAD. Latent symptoms of VAD first surfaced during the last presidential election.

Thinking well of city will help all in itAfter watching the Baltimore celebration of the visit of Pope John Paul II, can you imagine the positive effect of continuing to generate that energy of love and goodwill within the city?Can you imagine living in a place where people greet each other as friends? Can you imagine walking down the street without fear? Can you imagine a healthy, vital community in which people have jobs that support their needs?Thoughts are the framework of form. Everything created by humanity began as a thought and can be changed by thoughts since thoughts lead to actions.

WASHINGTON -- Let us suppose, for example, that George Bush decided he wanted to appear on NBC, CBS, the Phil Donahue show, CNN and PBS all within three days for the sole purpose of trashing President Clinton. Would the networks go for it? Not a chance.But that schedule is precisely the one Ross Perot has been following this week -- to be augmented with a paid half-hour commercial on NBC tomorrow night.When it comes to the billionaire from Texas, the television networks simply roll over.The rationale for all this is, of course, that Perot is "newsworthy" because less than seven months ago he ran up 19 percent of the presidential vote as a third-party candidate and obviously has a following.

WE REMAIN alert to even more unsettling threats in the aftermath of Sept. 11. We are assaulted by things that are both near and well-known (the mail, hollowed-out sneakers) and yet unknown and unfamiliar (invisible microbes, plastic explosives). The war is not just over there happening to them, it's here happening to us, and it can make anyone anxious and hyper-vigilant. Though many are worried, allowing our worries to incapacitate us is neither helpful nor healthy. Freud observed that neurotics seem to do better during times of war and catastrophe.